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Overview

Yorkshire and The Humber · Metropolitan district

Wakefield

2026/27 view

Wakefield · ONS E08000036

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 367,666 2024
Yorkshire and The Humber region 5,672,962
Wakefield represents 6.48% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+19,465 residents ↑ 5.6%
2019: 348,201 residents2020: 350,978 residents2021: 353,803 residents2022: 357,926 residents2023: 363,013 residents2024: 367,666 residents
Wakefield +5.6%
Yorkshire and The Humber +3.8%
England +4.3%
Growth context

Wakefield's population grew over five years. Its change was 1.8 percentage points above the Yorkshire and The Humber and 1.3 percentage points above England.

2019–2024 ONS mid-year estimates
Population estimates and labour-market measures from ONS/Nomis.Official profile
AIR QUALITY

How clean is the air?

Long-term particulate pollution across the council area, alongside measurements from local UK-AIR monitoring stations.

Defra 2,024
POPULATION-WEIGHTED ANNUAL MEAN

Fine particulate matter

7.1 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 6.7 µg/m³
Other sources 0.5 µg/m³
Modelled population-weighted annual concentration across the local authority area. This is not a live sensor reading.
LONG-TERM TREND

PM2.5 over time

39.8%
12.7 6.6
2011: 11.86 µg/m³ 2012: 11.50 µg/m³ 2013: 12.67 µg/m³ 2014: 11.20 µg/m³ 2015: 8.45 µg/m³ 2016: 8.67 µg/m³ 2017: 7.59 µg/m³ 2018: 8.21 µg/m³ 2019: 8.98 µg/m³ 2020: 6.58 µg/m³ 2021: 6.80 µg/m³ 2022: 7.06 µg/m³ 2023: 7.06 µg/m³ 2024: 7.14 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 39.8%
5 years ↓ 20.4%
10 years ↓ 36.2%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM2.5 9.8 µg/m³
Provisional
Last 24 hours 2.3 – 9.8 µg/m³
2026-09-22 02:00:00+01: 4.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 03:00:00+01: 5.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 04:00:00+01: 5.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 05:00:00+01: 6.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 06:00:00+01: 6.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 07:00:00+01: 6.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 08:00:00+01: 7.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 09:00:00+01: 8.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 10:00:00+01: 8.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 11:00:00+01: 6.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 12:00:00+01: 3.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 13:00:00+01: 2.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 14:00:00+01: 2.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 15:00:00+01: 2.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 16:00:00+01: 3.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 17:00:00+01: 3.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 18:00:00+01: 4.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 19:00:00+01: 3.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 20:00:00+01: 4.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 21:00:00+01: 4.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 22:00:00+01: 8.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01: 7.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 00:00:00+01: 7.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01: 9.8 µg/m³
Wakefield Alverthorpe Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN) · Urban Background Latest measurement: 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01

This is a measurement from an individual monitoring station and should not be interpreted as the current concentration across the whole council area.

HEALTH IMPACT

Particulate air pollution

5.4% of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution
2024 Not compared

This OHID measure estimates the mortality burden associated with particulate air pollution. It is a health-impact measure, not a pollution concentration.

Annual PM2.5 is Defra Pollution Climate Mapping data. Monitoring readings are station-specific UK-AIR measurements and may be provisional. Defra source